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With the update to iOS 11, images synchronised from iOS devices to a Mac are in HEIC file format. When I attempt to open these images using Affinity Photo from within Apple Photos the application/extension reports "The file type is not supported." Opening a file from Photos in the Affinity Photo standalone app is not affected as the export process changes the file to a suitable type.

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The desktop app currently does not support the HEIC file type at this time, we only support it on iPad at the moment. The team are aware of this any may add support in the future but it is not in the app currently

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Hi JDub,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The desktop versions of Affinity Designer and Photo still cannot open HEIC/F files directly. One way you can work around this is to add the HEIC file to Apple Photos, then go to menu Image ▸ Edit With ▸ Affinity Photo (the file will be sent as a TIFF for editing in Photo) or alternatively (still in Apple Photos with the HEIF file selected) go to menu File ▸ Export ▸ Export 1 Photo... and select the format you want. You can then open the exported file directly from Affinity.

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Hey Affinity team - come on - I bought affinity for Mac already more than a year ago and was a real fan. Now using my new iPhone x it doesn't work anymore? You are telling us we need to export and import again, if we want to use it in Mac Photos e.g. for books or other projects?

The embedded functionality was the key bying factor for me. Can't be that complicated to provide an update and make it useable again. It is - better was - a great tool and I advocated it at my friends, and now? scrab?

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Hi JDub,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The desktop versions of Affinity Designer and Photo still cannot open HEIC/F files directly. One way you can work around this is to add the HEIC file to Apple Photos, then go to menu Image ▸ Edit With ▸ Affinity Photo (the file will be sent as a TIFF for editing in Photo) or alternatively (still in Apple Photos with the HEIF file selected) go to menu File ▸ Export ▸ Export 1 Photo... and select the format you want. You can then open the exported file directly from Affinity.

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It's great to be able to open HEIC files on the iPad version. Now would be awesome to have the Depth Map channel, like on the latest photoshop, so one could edit it and use to apply some lens blur. It would be amazing to be able, in the end, to save again as HEIC.

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Considering switching from Adobe to Affinity. I am on the 10 day trial but it is not a good start that I have to use a work around to import HEIC files in a MAC designed app... The last reply from Affinity was in July but the issue has been known for much longer.... an explanation would be the best bet instead of letting people hang. No feed back from the company is not a good start either.... perhaps updating folks or providing link to an update would be a more professional way to work?

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same goes for Affinity Photo for iPad. Opening heic files from Photos App works well. But imagine what happens when I take Photos on my iPhone and backup them to an iXpand drive in heic format. I would then like to open them on my iPad either via Drag and Drop or via opening from Cloud. This way Affinity Photo will not be able to open such files.

I built a workaround for this issue via Apple shortcuts app. I made a shortcut that can be started from Sharesheet and first converts the file format to whatever I like (i.e. tiff), then opens the picture in Affinity Photo. This works fine, but only for one image. Multiple images are not supported.

As I don‘t own a Mac I cannot say whether this workaround will go for Mac as well.

But the procedure also states that routines for converting file formats are already built into the iOS operating system. So as far as I am concerned it cannot be too difficult to integrate these routines into Affinity Photo.

And I would very much appreciate Affinity Photo to open heic files from scratch.

Affinityphotoipaduser

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I'm an avid supporter and influencer in my design circle. Recommending the Affinity Suite for iPad without hesitation and with much love. Yet, when one of my peers purchased the Mac edition, we were both disappointed, and I obviously so a little embarrassed when we tried to collaborate on a piece exported as the much appreciated HEIC-format. It appears the Mac version of Affinity Photo neglects such an important file-format. I love the incredible support the application has on iPad, but it seems kind of dead in terms of responsiveness and willingness from the Serif team to cater to the Mac platform. - What gives?

For curiosity:i kind of liked BPG image format as PNG alternative but i guess it was kind of grey/dark area from licensing view. There is something called FLIF but dunno how far is it, also PIK format in the making, closer to JPEG (better noise and gradients retention)

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There is still no support for the HEIC/HEIF format on the desktop app (v. 1.6.7). It's more than a year this topic was opened and just one answer from Serif. It's more as disappointing to support this format only on iPad version but not in the desktop. I also couldn't find it on the roadmap, so when will Serif implement this format? Many users need it and ask for this format, but nothing moves.

I'm an AP user from the beginning and worked also with the beta versions and was always happy to see AP getting better and better, but more that a year w/t an answer on this topic it is unsatisfying.

I tested also different converters for HEIC/HEIF format and not all of the created exports are possible to open in AP, what really surprised me. In the end I chose AnyMP4 and iMazing (both from AppStore) to convert HEIC/HEIF format into PNG or JPG. The JPG is not a problem to open, but the converted PNG's from iMazing are not possible to open and if i check the file information there are some jpg informations included which irritates me. But this one is possible to open with Adobe Photoshop CS6 till version CC 2018. Conversely, the converted PNG's from AnyMP4 can not be opened in Adobe Photoshop but in Affinity Photo. Strange world. In the end it would be the best to support finally the HEIC/HEIF format instead of relying on third-party software.